Removal mechanism for adhesive eye strips

ABSTRACT

A mechanism for releasing an eye strip from a backing material card is described. The backing material card includes a movable flap that releases a right and/or left undamaged end of a strip (for right or left hand preference) into free space in order to conveniently lift the strip off the backing material, preferably between the user&#39;s thumb and index fmger, for proper orientation and placement on the eyelid.

BACKGROUND

To achieve a more youthful eyelid appearance, an adhesive eye strip canbe placed on the upper eyelid of a user to tuck and hold droopy uppereyelid skin in its youthful position. One side of the strip is convexand is placed toward the back of the upper eyelid in order to recreatethe person's natural eyelid crease, causing the eyelid skin to assume amore youthful position and not droop toward or over the border of theupper lid. More details about adhesive eye strips as referred to in thepresent application can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,190,346 and6,193,741, the entire contents of which are incorporated by referenceherein. One example of an adhesive eye strip includes a small adhesivestrip with one straight edge and one convex edge, the strip having anoverall midline length of approximately 25 mm, and a width of about 5 mmwide at its midpoint, and a width of about 1.7 mm at each of its roundedends. Any type of adhesive eye strip may be used with the removalmechanism of the present invention.

The adhesive eye strip can achieve its desired function only if it canbe placed properly on the eyelid by the user. The most difficultchallenge in doing so is removing the small, thin, adhesive coated stripfrom its backing material, first without damaging it and second, in amanner that enables lifting the strip off the backing material with theproper orientation for application. In order to have the greatest easein orienting the strip properly on the eyelid it is preferable to beable to pick one end of it off the backing material between the user'sthumb and index finger of their left or right hand, whichever ispreferred.

Each eye strip consists of a thin and flexible or very flexible materialcoated with an adhesive layer (in one example, the total strip thicknessis approximately 0.004 inches) and adhered to a backing material havinga release coating. Due to the thinness of the strip material andadhesive coating and the small size of each end, it is difficult toremove it from its backing material without damaging it. Often, stripremoval from the backing material using one's fingernail to pry up oneend of the strip causes it to fold under and adhere to itself (adhesiveto adhesive) rendering the strip useless or causing an upward curling ofthe end making placement more difficult and making it less likely toadhere to the skin.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A mechanism that exposes an end of an eye strip into free space isdescribed in order to conveniently lift the strip off the backingmaterial, preferably between the user's thumb and index finger, forproper orientation and placement on the eyelid. The mechanism includesproviding a backing material card having a continuous cut to create amovable flap on the card from which the eye strip can be removed. Amethod for using the mechanism is also described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one embodiment including two eye strips 10Aand 10B positioned on the backing material card 20.

FIG. 2 is a side view of one end of an eye strip 10A being lifted off ofthe backing material card 20.

FIG. 3 a is a diagram showing another embodiment of the inventionincluding eight pairs of eye strips 10A and 10B positioned on thebacking material card 20.

FIG. 3 b is a diagram showing the back surface 22 of the embodimentshown in FIG. 3 a.

FIG. 4 a is a diagram showing a different embodiment of the inventionincluding eight pairs of eye strips 10A and 10B positioned on thebacking material card 20.

FIG. 4 b is a diagram showing the back 24 of the embodiment shown inFIG. 4 a.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows strips 10A and 10B (oriented horizontally on backingmaterial card 20 on its front surface 21) which straddle vertical cuts25A and 25B (each approximately 15 mm long) in the backing material 20approximately 3 mm proximal to each end region 11A and 11B of the strip10A, and each end region 12A and 12B of strip 10B. A horizontal cut,shown as 30A-D in FIG. 1 (approximately 7 mm long) from each end of thevertical cut extends toward the center of the strip creating a movableflap 35A and 35B of backing material at both ends of each pair ofstrips.

As shown in the figures, the horizontal and vertical or curved cuts inthe backing material should preferably be actual continuous cuts throughthe entire thickness of the backing material, and not perforations. Thedashed lines in the figures showing the front surface of the backingmaterial reflect the fact that the cuts are present behind the adhesiveeye strips. The figures showing the back surface of the backing materialshow the continuity of the cuts in the backing material.

To remove a strip from the backing card, the card 20 with front surface21 facing the user (strip side up) should be oriented so that the curvedside of the strip faces toward the user or downward because the curvedside of the strip is to be placed toward the back of the eyelid. Thenthe user should hold the edge or middle of the backing material card 20,adjacent to a pair of strips 10A and 10B, between thumb (front surface21 or strip side of card) and index finger (back surface 22 or undersideof card) of his or her hand, depending on whether he or she wants topick up the left or right side of the strip with either his or her leftor right hand.

While holding the backing material card with front surface 21 facing theuser (strip side up), the user should press upward on back surface 22from under the strip with their other index finger just medial to thevertical cut and between both horizontal cut extensions under the end ofinterest, forcing the flap 35A or 35B of backing material card 20 tomove upward so that the end region 11A or 11B, and end region 12A or12B, lateral to the vertical cut, lift off the backing material andextend into free space without folding or curling, as shown in FIG. 2.FIG. 2 shows a side or edge view of backing material card 20 with flap35A pushed up, revealing an end region 11A of strip 10A, making it veryeasy for the user to lift strip 10A up and off the front surface 21 ofbacking material card 20 without damaging, folding or curling strip 10A.

Another embodiment of the invention includes the use of curved orrounded cuts rather than vertical and horizontal cuts, as shown in FIGS.4 a and 4 b. Similar to the embodiment described above, the user pressesupward on back surface 22 from behind the backing material card 20 underthe desired (left or right) cut 40A or 40B to lift flap 45A or 45Bupward from front surface 21 of card 20, so that the end region 11A or11B, and end region 12A or 12B, lateral to the curved cut 40A or 40B,lift off of the backing material and into free space without folding orcurling, similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 2.

To cause the ends of the strip to lift off the backing material, withoutundue effort or force, the upward force required to be placed on thebacking material card should not be in excess of 500 grams, as measuredby applying pressure with a 0.3 inch diameter circular probe(approximating the size of part of one's index finger tip that could beapplied to the underside of the cut backing material card).

In one embodiment each backing card holds 8 pairs of strips, as shown inFIGS. 3 a and 4 a. Each card can be placed in a re-sealable wrapper.Since there are multiple pairs of strips per card, the user canre-insert the card into the wrapper after removing a single pair ofstrips.

Because the skin of the upper eyelid is fragile, eye strip removal mustbe accomplished without placing undue shearing or pulling stress on theskin which could result in skin tearing. As a result, it is recommendedthat moisturizer be applied to the skin of the upper eyelid prior toplacement of the strip. Since moisturizer is present, the adhesive mustbe of a more aggressive nature to overcome the slipperiness of themoisturizer. This is preferable to using a less aggressive adhesivewithout moisturizer, which may cause greater difficulty with stripremoval when adhesive contacts the skin directly without any interveningmoisturizer.

It is necessary for the unused strips to adhere well enough to thebacking card so as to not slide into and adhere to an adjacent strip orbecome positioned away from the vertical cut or over the horizontal cutextensions rendering the removal mechanism less effective orineffective. It is also necessary that the level of adhesion not be sogreat as to increase the force required to lift the ends of the stripoff the backing material. As noted above, the adhesive on the strip mustbe relatively aggressive so it can be placed over and used with amoisturizer. Therefore, to reduce the adhesion between strip and backingmaterial to an extent that the lifting force is not excessive, but yetnot to reduce the adhesion to a degree where strips slide out ofposition, a number of suitable chemical substances, such as a releasecoating, can be applied to the backing material, positioned between thepaper of the backing material card and the adhesive coating of thestrip. These substances include silicone and similar materials.

Although in this embodiment a pair of strips are shown in reference tothe release mechanism, the release mechanism could be used with a singlestrip or more than two. Other configurations of the continuous cuts,such as wavy, zig-zag or curved lines, are contemplated, as long as thecut or cuts result in forming a movable flap in the backing materialpositioned proximal to the end region of an adhesive eye strip. Indiciaindicating where the user should press upwards on the backing materialunder an adhesive eye strip to facilitate strip removal are alsocontemplated. The adhesive eye strips can be packaged in convenientquantities, for example, a one-week or a one-month supply, for daily useby the user.

1. A release mechanism for an adhesive eye strip, comprising a backingmaterial card onto which the eye strip is positioned, the card having atleast one continuous cut positioned under the eye strip, said cutcapable of creating a movable flap from which the eye strip can beremoved.
 2. The release mechanism of claim 1, wherein the backingmaterial card comprises at least one continuous vertical cut and atleast one continuous horizontal cut, said horizontal and vertical cutshaving at least one point of intersection.
 3. The release mechanism ofclaim 2, wherein the at least one vertical cut intersects with at leasttwo horizontal cuts to create the movable flap.
 4. The release mechanismof claim 1, wherein the backing material card comprises at least onecontinuous curved cut to create the movable flap.
 5. The releasemechanism of claim 1, wherein the backing material card includes arelease coating.
 6. The release mechanism of claim 1, wherein themovable flap is configured to lift one end of the eye strip off of thebacking material card.
 7. The release mechanism of claim 1, comprising aplurality of movable flaps positioned under the eye strip.
 8. Therelease mechanism of claim 7, wherein the movable flaps are configuredto lift either end of the eye strip off of the material backing card. 9.The release mechanism of claim 1, wherein the continuous cut isgenerally linear.
 10. The release mechanism of claim 1, furthercomprising indicia on the backing material card to indicate a locationfor applying force to lift the movable flap.
 11. A method for applyingan adhesive eye strip to an eyelid, comprising the steps of: a)providing an eye strip on a backing material card, said card comprisinga movable flap; b) lifting the movable flap upwards to release one endof the eye strip; c) lifting the released end of the eye strip to removethe entire eye strip from the backing material card; and d) applying theeye strip to the eyelid.